A Belated Guest (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance) by William Dean Howellspage 1 of 16 (06%)

LITERARY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES--A Belated Guest

by William Dean Howells

A BELATED GUEST

It is doubtful whether the survivor of any order of things findscompensation in the privilege, however undisputed by his contemporaries,of recording his memories of it. This is, in the first two or threeinstances, a pleasure. It is sweet to sit down, in the shade or by thefire, and recall names, looks, and tones from the past; and if theAbsences thus entreated to become Presences are those of famous people,they lend to the fond historian a little of their lustre, in which hebasks for the time with an agreeable sense of celebrity. But anothertime comes, and comes very soon, when the pensive pleasure changes to thepain of duty, and the precious privilege converts itself into a grievousobligation. You are unable to choose your company among those immortalshades; if one, why not another, where all seem to have a right to suchgleams of this 'dolce lome' as your reminiscences can shed upon them?Then they gather so rapidly, as the years pass, in these pale realms,that one, if one continues to survive, is in danger of wearing out suchwelcome, great or small, as met ones recollections in the first two orthree instances, if one does one's duty by each. People begin to say,and not without reason, in a world so hurried and wearied as this: "Ah,here he is again with his recollections!" Well, but if the recollectionsby some magical good-fortune chance to concern such a contemporary of hisas, say, Bret Harte, shall not he be partially justified, or at leastexcused?